Twenty years ago the microbe was making a great stir in the land. The
public mind, ever prone to exaggerate the importance and extent of any
new scientific discovery, ascribed all known diseases to microbes. The
infinitesimal creature with the mysterious and unpleasant attributes
became the leading topic of the time. Shrewdly appreciating this golden
opportunity, a quack genius named Radam invented a drug to slay the new
enemy of mankind and gave it his name. Radam's Microbe Killer filled the
public prints with blazonry of its lethal virtues. As it consisted of a
mixture of muriatic and sulphuric acids with red wine, any microbe which
took it was like to fare hard; but the ingenious Mr. Radam's method of
administering it to its intended prey via the human stomach failed to
commend itself to science, though enormously successful in a financial
sense through flamboyant advertising.
Liquozone "Cures" Thirty-seven Varieties.
In time some predaceous bacillus, having eluded the "killer," carried
off its inventor. His nostrum soon languished. To-day it is little heard
of, but from the ashes of its glories has risen a mightier successor,
Liquozone. Where twenty years ago the microbe reveled in publicity,
to-day we talk of germs and bacteria; consequently Liquozone exploits
itself as a germicide and bactericide. It dispenses with the red wine
of the Radam concoction and relies on a weak solution of sulphuric
and sulphurous acids, with an occasional trace of hydrochloric or
hydrobromic acid. Mostly it is water, and this is what it "cures":
"Asthma, Gallstones,
Abscess--Anemia, Goiter--Gout;
Bronchitis, Hay Fever--Influenza,
Blood Poison, La Grippe,
Bowel Troubles, Leucorrhea,
Coughs--Colds, Malaria--Neuralgia,
Consumption, Piles--Quinsy,
Contagious Diseases, Rheumatism,
Cancer--Catarrh, Scrofula,
Dysentery--Diarrhea, Skin Diseases,
Dyspepsia--Dandruff, Tuberculosis,
Eczema--Erysipelas, Tumors--Ulcers,
Fevers, Throat Troubles
--all diseases that begin with fever--all inflammations--all
catarrh--all contagious diseases--all the results of impure or poisoned
blood. In nervous diseases Liquozone acts as a vitalizer, accomplishing
what no drugs can do."
These diseases it conquers by destroying, in the human body, the germs
which cause (or are alleged to cause) them. Such is Liquozone's claim.
Yet the Liquozone Company is not a patent medicine concern. We have
their own word for it:
"We wish to state at the start that we are not patent medicine men, and
their methods will not be employed by us.... Liquozone is too important
a product for quackery."
The head and center of this non-patent medicine cure-all is Douglas
Smith. {024}Mr. Smith is by profession a promoter. He is credited with
a keen vision for profits. Several years ago he ran on a worthy ex-piano
dealer, a Canadian by the name of Powley (we shall meet him again,
trailing clouds of glory in a splendid metamorphosis), who was selling
with some success a mixture known as Powley's Liquefied Ozone. This was
guaranteed to kill any disease germ known to science. Mr. Smith examined
into the possibilities of the product, bought out Powley, moved the
business to Chicago and organized it as the Liquid Ozone Company. Liquid
air was then much in the public prints. Mr. Smith, with the intuition
of genius, and something more than genius' contempt for limitations,
proceeded to catch the public eye with this frank assertion: "Liquozone
is liquid oxygen--that is all."
It is enough. That is, it would be enough if it were but true. Liquid
oxygen doesn't exist above a temperature of 229 degrees below zero. One
spoonful would freeze a man's tongue, teeth and throat to equal solidity
before he ever had time to swallow. If he could, by any miracle, manage
to get it down, the undertaker would have to put him on the stove to
thaw him out sufficiently for a respectable burial. Unquestionably
Liquozone, if it were liquid oxygen, would kill germs, but that wouldn't
do the owner of the germs much good because he'd be dead before they had
time to realize that the temperature was falling. That it would cost a
good many dollars an ounce to make is, perhaps, beside the question. The
object of the company was not to make money, but to succor the
sick and suffering. They say so themselves in their advertising. For
some reason, however, the business did not prosper as its new owner had
expected. A wider appeal to the sick and suffering was needed. Claude C.
Hopkins, formerly advertising manager for Dr. Shoop's Restorative (also
a cure-all) and perhaps the ablest exponent of his specialty in the
country, was brought into the concern and a record-breaking campaign
was planned. This cost no little money, but the event proved it a good
investment. President Smith's next move showed him to be the master of a
silver tongue, for he persuaded the members of a very prominent law firm
who were acting as the company's attorneys to take stock in the concern,
and two of them to become directors. These gentlemen represent, in
Chicago, something more than the high professional standing of their
firm; they are prominent socially and forward in civic activities; in
short, just the sort of people needed by President Smith to bulwark his
dubious enterprise with assured respectability.
The Men Who Back the Fake.
In the Equitable scandal there has been plenty of evidence to show
that directors often lend their names to enterprises of which they know
practically nothing. This seems to have been the case with the lawyers.
One point they brought up: was Liquozone harmful? Positively not,
Douglas Smith assured them. On the contrary, it was the greatest boon to
the sick in the world's history, and he produced an impressive bulk of
testimonials. This apparently satisfied them; they did not investigate
the testimonials, but accepted them at their face value. They did not
look into the advertising methods of the company; as nearly as I can
find out, they never saw an advertisement of Liquozone in the papers
until long afterward. They just became stockholders and directors, that
is all. They did as hundreds of other upright and well-meaning men had
done in lending themselves to a business of which they knew practically
nothing.
While the lawyers continued to practice law, Messrs. Smith and Hopkins
were running the Liquozone Company. An enormous advertising campaign
was begun. Pamphlets were issued containing testimonials and claiming
{025}the soundest of professional backing. Indeed, this matter of
expert testimony, chemical, medical and bacteriologic, is a specialty of
Liquozone. Today, despite its reforms, it is supported by an ingenious
system of pseudoscientific charlatanry. In justice to Mr. Hopkins it is
but fair to say that he is not responsible for the basic fraud; that the
general scheme was devised, and most of the bogus or distorted medical
letters arranged, before his advent. But when I came to investigate
the product a few months ago I found that the principal defense against
attacks consisted of scientific statements which would not bear analysis
and medical letters not worth the paper they were written on. In
the first place, the Liquozone people have letters from chemists
asseverating that the compound is chemically scientific.
Faked and Garbled Indorsements.
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